Toolbox for Dispersing Carbon Nanotubes into Polymers to Get Electrically Conductive Nanocomposites

Toolbox for Dispersing Carbon Nanotubes into Polymers to Get Electrically Conductive Nanocomposites 

For obtaining conductive CNT/polymer composites, the highly electrical conductive CNT filler is dispersed into the polymer matrix in 

Polymer Carbon Nanotube Composites Tbe Polymer Latex Concept Nadia Grossiord, Marie Claire Hermant, and Cor Koning Copyright 2012 Pan Stanford Publishing Pte. Ltd. 

CNTs are not standardized products yet. As a result, the characteristics of the CNTs, which determine their properties (such as their intrinsic electrical conductivity), are strongly influenced by the production method, as well as by the experimental synthesis conditions under which the synthesis has been carried out. By choosing the experimental conditions of the production method properly, it is possible to control some parameters of the final product, e.g., the type of CNTs synthesized (MWCNTs vs. SWCNTs), the quality of the CNTs, the amount and type of impurities, some 

Structural CNT features such as the degree of crystallinity, the tube and wall structure, etc. CNTs are mostly produced with impurities such as amorphous carbon or catalyst particles, as well as defects. As with many materials, the presence of defects significantly affects the material properties. Defects can occur in the form of atomic vacancies or as the so-called Stone-Wales defects, which create pentagon and heptagon pairs by rearrangement of the bonds. The common result of the presence of defects is the lowered conductivity through the defective region of the tube. ° 

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